Key factors of coal mining in world’s leading countries

This research is based on the statistics of injuries and accidents in top coal-mining countries for 2013–2023, including China, India, Russia and the USA. The main attention is paid to the analysis of history of fatal injuries in open pit and underground mining, traumatism causes and structure of accidents, as well as to the fire and explosion prevention activities. It is found that, although the increase in the coal production and consumption in the world, with a record of 8.97 Bt in 2023, the world’s top coal-mining countries such as China, India, Russia and the USA show a general trend of decrease in the level of fatal injuries. The danger coefficient of coal mining is 21.82 in Russia, 36.49 in India and 3.56 in the USA. In the U.S. and India, the main causes of most fatal injuries are connected with operation mechanization and human factor. Gas explosions in China lead to the highest body count—7 men per an event on the average, while fires, despite lower frequency (4.3% of accidents), are the number two type of accidents in terms of severity of consequences (5.8 casualties per an event on the average). In Russia, in spite of the similar structure of the main accidents as in China, there is the highest percentage of accidents connected with gas and coal dust explosions and fires (51,4% of all accidents), including 27.9% of fires and 23.5% of explosions (burning) of gas and coal dust.

Fedotkin I. O. Key factors of coal mining in world’s leading countries. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2025;(3):153-167. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236_1493_2025_3_0_153.

I.O. Fedotkin, Graduate Student, University of Science and Technology MISIS, 119049, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: fedotkin.iliya@gmail.com, ORCID ID:0009-0004-2399-480X.

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